RIP R.EM.

"To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening."

This is sad news, but honestly it shoulda happened years ago. The last 3 or 4 albums have been terrible.

Having grown up in the suburbs of Atlanta, they really were the soundtrack of my youth. Listening to an upperclassman's 2nd-gen tapes of Murmur and Life's Rich Pageant was the first time I discovered that there was great music not on the radio or MTV. And Michael Stipe, my boyhood idol for so many years, was probably the most instrumental in my coming out when I read in Rolling Stone how he described his sexuality: "Labels are for canned food" (I think that's pretty silly now but my teenage self thought it was brilliant!)

I still know all the words to It's the End of the World as We Know It!

I fuckin love Orange Crush. In fact, Green is probably my favorite album for the sheer cohesiveness of it. Back then all their songs were about something... I think that's why their last few albums were so bad because they stopped writing songs like that.